The premise of this project is to provide you with tools and approaches that will enable you to get to the best version of yourself as you work the EAF and consider your life in a more holistic manner.
Early on, I began discussing what are the 13 Dimensions of Life that I’ve found useful, and some leading questions to consider as you reviewed each dimension for your situation. What I did not do was define or describe what a Dimension of Life is as a concept – this article aims to do just that.
The Energy and Action Framework is a model that allows for an end to end integrated view, while giving each of us an opportunity to dive deep into a specific DOL – as a method for improving yourself. It is a performance management framework that can readily be applied to individuals, and that’s the focus of this project for this year. Broader team units (families and your team at work, for example) can also engage in the model, although I think individuals are the first stop of conveying the approach as part of this project.
A DOL is a subset of your life’s work – consider each DOL a perspective with correspondingly different set of outcomes – based upon that area of your life.
A Dimension is really a subset of where you spend your energy and it is related to other DOLs. There is no single DOL that is isolated from the other DOLS.
The logic of the 13 DOLS is
- these are areas in life that people can readily adopt plans for
- drive some improvement within
- setting and achieving goals
Many of the friends I’ve shared this concept with – have thought of their life as a subset of these 13 DOLs. If you consider your life a system of systems/processes/people/energy/emotions/etc – then a defined set of the subsystems will help to drive improvements in those select areas that need the most attention.
I believe these are the 13 that make the most sense right now.
As the journey continues, I’m sure there will be opportunities to add another domain or two – or even consolidate a few DOLS into a singular DOL. Time will tell.
DOLS are a way to compartmentalize your planning, to architect one’s own life, and to more easily enable one’s pursuit of greatness.
For many, a singular focus on one DOL for a 6 month period may be what is needed, while others may want to throw away a DOL or two – given where they are in life. It is intended to be holistic in terms of the overall architecture, and incredibly flexible as you seek to apply it to your own planning and realization efforts.
DOL Types
Now there are types of DOLS and at a very high level – there are inner and outer DOLs that you engage and work through all day long.
There are also enabling DOLs that link up both your inner and outer worlds. Approaching goal setting and self improvement by leveraging this notion of DOL types is something that I’ll be digging into a bit more – down the line.
DOL Scoring When Using the EAF Framework For Planning
Finally, each DOL has a corresponding score attached to it – a level of happiness that you set and a level of current priority – that you also set.
If you are unhappy and need to re-prioritize – then the DOLs that get the focus will move towards the top of the priority list and correspondingly the level of happiness should also rise in that area.
Over time and with the right systems, follow through, habits, and other things we’ll continue to round out here – your overall level of happiness will improve. I believe if you can achieve greater levels of happiness – your life will be ever moving towards what you define as success for yourself. To many watching your gradually increasing happiness levels – they will only see the greatness you’ve realized.
Your level of success, as you define it…
is a lagging indicator of the work you have put in.
So get to work.
Today.
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